Aamir Khan has begun a major weight-loss programme to play a 25-year-old in filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker’s upcoming cricket-based sports drama Lalkaara. The film marks the reunion of the actor and director more than two decades after Lagaan.
According to News18, citing a Filmfare report, Aamir has already started losing considerable weight for the role. At 61, the actor faces the added challenge of making a character several decades younger than himself appear convincing on screen.
“Aamir Khan is on a massive weight-loss programme for Ashutosh Gowariker’s next film. Touted as a sports drama, Lalkaara will see the actor playing a 25-year-old,” a source told Filmfare.
The source added that Aamir is known for going all out for physically demanding roles and is again putting considerable effort into his transformation. The makers have not yet revealed how they plan to portray him as a 25-year-old.
Aamir has undergone striking physical changes for several films. For Dangal, he gained substantial weight to portray an older Mahavir Singh Phogat before losing it to film the character’s younger years. He also built a muscular physique for Ghajini and adopted a leaner look for PK.
Lalkaara, however, presents a different challenge, as Aamir will reportedly portray someone much younger than his actual age.
Written by Piyush Gupta and Neeraj Singh, the film is set against the backdrop of Indian cricket. Plot details remain under wraps, but the story is expected to explore rivalry, friendship and patriotism. It will also reportedly examine the impact of Partition through the experiences of one of the early figures associated with Indian cricket.
The film’s cricket-and-history setting has drawn comparisons with Lagaan, though Lalkaara will tell a different story.
Aamir and Gowariker’s previous collaboration, Lagaan, released in 2001 and featured Aamir as Bhuvan, a villager who forms a cricket team to challenge British officers during colonial rule. The film became a major critical and commercial success and earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards.
More than two decades later, cricket once again brings the actor and director together. This time, Aamir will reportedly enter a story linked to an early chapter of Indian cricket and the upheaval surrounding Partition.
With his weight-loss programme already under way, attention is now on Aamir’s eventual look and the details of his character in Lalkaara.
